Shin is the Japanese for Parkway

So, not that our views are going to make any difference, but where do we stand on HS2? Apart, presumably, from bunched up between carriages whilst people have loud passive-aggressive conversations on their mobiles.

For:1. High speed trains are, of course,immensely cool.

2. Will piss off NIMBYs. It goes, in particular, next to the town I grew up and I am particularly pleased to have the good burghers of said Tory shire pissed off. Also there was a particularly hand-wringingly phrased notice up by the residential moorings on the Oxford Canal, it was NIMBYism at it's finest - high speed rail is great but not here.

3. National willy waving - will get more lines in Britain on the map of high speed lines in Europe that appears on Eurobadger trains.

Neutral:1. May or may not be green according to how you do your sums.

Against:1. A hell of a lot of money. Should provide a faster link between London and Birmingham by 2026.

2. As a founder member of the FLFFP (**** London, **** Farmers Party) I feel duty bound to point out that the wretched thing is starting in London. Therefore all it will do is drag those bits of Birmingham relatively close to it more into the orbit of London.

Combining points 1 and 2, clearly the money could be better spent improving transport in numerous other ways, for people who don't want to go, er, between London and Birmingham. Clearly it won't, though.